Son of a fisherman, started timber trading in 1979. Opened a design school in 1990. Now his Raffles Education has 28 design colleges across Asia Pacific, including in China and India; moving into business education. Known for his colorful spectacles and ties.

To compile this list we looked at shareholdings in publicly traded companies as well as in private company filings. For people with publicly traded fortunes net worths were calculated using current share prices and exchange rates. For privately held fortunes we estimated what they would be worth if public.

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